'I would have beat twin sister Chloe if I was healthy!' jokes Judith MacCombe
SIBLING RIVALRY: Judith MacCombe, right, and guide Eimear Nicholls of Ireland in action. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Not even the exhaustion of a 750m swim, 20km cycle, 5km run, and a weekend vomiting bug that threatened to torpedo Judith MacCombe’s Paralympic Games could prevent some wry sibling humour at the triathlon finish line.
Judith and her guide, Eimear Nicholls, were eighth across the line in Monday’s PTVI class. Eighth place at her debut Paralympics and yet she wasn’t even the highest place finisher from her own house.
There catching their breath along the utterly picturesque Pont Alexandre III was twin sister Chloe and her guide Catherine Sands. They’d crossed 45 seconds earlier and two places higher.
There was no initial embrace between the 29-year-old twin sisters from the Derry village of Claudy. Exhaustion saw to that. Judith collapsed onto her hunkers. Chloe bent down to put a hand on her sister’s back in congratulation and consolation.
There followed an exchange of words, a gentle push from Judith, and a squirt of water from Chloe at her sister. Two sisters teasing and goading at the finish line of a Paralympic Games. Two sisters still able to have fun after 70-odd minutes of swimming, cycling, and running in the baking Parisian heat.
“I reminded her that if I was healthy I would have won,” Judith laughed.
That sharpness and wit wasn’t confined to only one twin. When Chloe was asked about how special a day it must have been for the MacCombe clan dotted around the stands and leant over barricades, her reply had no interest in sentiment.
“I’m sure it was stressful as well, maybe worried about us falling out with each other afterwards, and having to deal with that.”
The sibling rivalry is always there. It’s a rivalry that motivates them both. They’d never want it any other way.
“No matter what the outcome, we are always proud of each other,” said Judith. “She knew I had been sick the past few days. She was proud that I was able to race alongside her.”
Proud she was. To have the other MacCombe emblazoned tri suit tearing around Paris was “absolutely phenomenal”, Chloe remarked.
“To see her out there pushing hard and spurring us on as well, it was class. Whoever finished first, we were going to celebrate each other’s victories. It's incredible becoming a Paralympian along with your sister, and with Catherine as well.”
No more than the finish line, there was a lovely moment at the last changeover. Chloe and Catherine were throwing on their runners when Judith and Eimear pulled in on their tandem bike just up from them.
A vast transition area occupied exclusively by a pair of visually impaired twin sisters representing their country on the vastest stage of all.
Judith’s bike split was the second fastest of the 11-strong field. The subsequent 5km run is typically her strongest element. But given the vomiting bug that crippled her all weekend, guide Eimear Nicholls did not expect further ground to be made. Their sole aim of the last leg was to complete it.
“Two nights ago when Judith was sick, I prayed for some miracles, and we got it when the race was delayed by a day. Delayed by two days and we may have even been better, but the one day postponement at least got us on the start line.
“I knew the run was where she was going to feel the worst of what she has been through the last few days. She would usually run at least a minute quicker than that.”
It all contributed to a frustrating and inescapable sense of operating “below par”. But not before Judith could squeeze in another quip.
“Imagine what I could have done if I was healthy! There is that element of what if. Or if only. But it is what it is. If the race had been Sunday, I wouldn't even have got the chance to start.”
Chloe qualified for Paris third in the world rankings. Any medal ambitions privately held had sunk when emerging from the Seine in ninth. Producing the third fastest cycle moved them up the field and were it not for a 10-second penalty for placing equipment outside the box at the last transition, they’d have nabbed a top-five finish.
“You always have your eyes on the podium, but ultimately, we just wanted to cross the line knowing we had given everything, which we did. I didn’t feel the best, but we went for it,” Chloe concluded.
For Ireland’s other Para triathlete in action, Cassie Cava, it was a difficult afternoon in the PTS4 class. The below-knee amputee slipped on the way to the start and twisted her leg in the process. She crossed in 12th.
“I got into the last transition and shouted, ‘I just can’t’. I got to the first aid station on the run and had to get my leg off as I was in absolute agony.’ One other athlete in my category came past and I thought, ‘we didn’t come here to quit’. If she can do it, I can do it. I said to myself to put one foot in front of the other and get to the finish.”
Elsewhere on Day 5, Shauna Bocquet missed out on qualification to the T54 1,500m final by just one place. Needing to finish among the top six in her heat, Bocquet was seventh in 3:35.26, eight hundredths of a second off the Brazilian athlete in sixth.
Deaten Registe is Ireland’s fourth Para swimming finalist of the Games after taking the last lane for tonight’s SB14 100m Breaststroke final. Reigste was fourth in his heat in 1:08.49 to qualify eighth.
In the MS3 table tennis Round of 16, Colin Judge lost in straight sets to four-time Paralympic champion Panfeng Feng of China.
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